The Radeon R7 250X Is A Good Value At $100
Let's take a look at the aggregate performance of these cards for an idea of where the Radeon R7 250X lands:
AMD's Radeon R7 250X performs roughly on par with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti. It's notably better than the GeForce GTX 650 and Radeon R7 250 GDDR5.
What you don't see, however, is pricing. The GeForce GTX 650 Ti typically sells for around $130, while the slower GeForce GTX 650 starts at $105. Moreover, the Radeon R7 250 GDDR5 appears around $90. Is it really any wonder that we'd be fans of a Radeon HD 7770/R7 250X at $100?
Regardless of nomenclature, this card really does enable 1080p gaming on a budget. It never dipped below 30 FPS at the quality settings we used in our 1920x1080-based benchmarks. Average frame rates bottomed out at 45 FPS.
With the Radeon R7 250X looking so strong in the sub-$150 market, AMD's biggest problem is the cards surrounding it. How could we recommend the R7 250 GDDR5 for $10 less than a vastly superior 250X? Similarly, the two R7 260 cards on Newegg (selling for $125 and $140) are far too expensive compared to the more powerful R7 260X, which costs about the same amount.
If we could set prices, the Radeon R7 240 would go for $65, the Radeon R7 250 GDDR5 would be $80, and the Radeon R7 260 would sell for $115. In a world where the R7 250X costs $100, those numbers would make more sense.
Then again, if the worst thing we can say about a graphics card is that it makes other members of the same family look less attractive, how bad can it be? Yes, the Radeon R7 250X is a blatant rehash of the Radeon HD 7770. Yes, I think that AMD should have at least tuned its reference clock rates before assigning a new name. And, yes, a $100 Radeon R7 250X represents the best mainstream graphics card under $120. It's the lowest-priced gateway to 1080p gaming at the moment.
